Ahmad Shah Massoud ( September 2, 1953September 9, 2001) was an Afghan politician and military commander.
His younger brother Ahmad Zia Massoud served as First Vice President of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009. ==Early life== Ahmad Shah Massoud was born in 1953 in Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley (today administered as part of Panjshir Province), to a well-to-do family native to the Panjshir valley.
He began studying engineering at Polytechnical University of Kabul in the 1970s, where he became involved with religious anti-communist movements around Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leading Islamist.
He said he learned from Mao, but found Guevara's thinking to be too simple. In 1973, former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan was brought to power in a coup d'état backed by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, and the Republic of Afghanistan was established.
His name at birth was "Ahmed Shah"; he took the name "Massoud" as a nom de guerre when he went into the resistance movement in 1974.
Kabul University was a centre for political debate and activism during that time. In July 1975, the Muslim Youth, with help from the Pakistani intelligence, staged an uprising against the government in Massoud's Panjshir Valley.
He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989.
By spring 1979 unrest had reached 24 out of 28 Afghan provinces, including major urban areas.
Over half of the Afghan army either deserted or joined the insurrection. Believing that an uprising against the Soviet-backed communists would be supported by the people, Massoud, on July 6, 1979, started an insurrection in the Panjshir, which initially failed.
Oliver Roy writes that in the following period, Massoud's "personal prestige and the efficiency of his military organisation persuaded many local commanders to come and learn from him." ===Resistance against the Soviet Union (1979–1989)=== Following the 1979 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Massoud devised a strategic plan for expelling the invaders and overthrowing the communist regime.
Between 1980 and 1985, these offensives were conducted twice a year.
Starting in 1980 with a force of less than 1,000 ill-equipped guerrillas, the Panjshir valley mujahideen grew to a 5,000-strong force by 1984.
Bin Laden was involved in ideological and personal disputes with Massoud and had sided with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar against Massoud in the inner-Afghan conflict since the late 1980s.
In 1982, the Soviets began deploying major combat units in the Panjshir, numbering up to 30,000 men.
Massoud and his mujahideen forces attacked and recaptured them one by one. In 1983, the Soviets offered Massoud a temporary truce, which he accepted in order to rebuild his own forces and give the civilian population a break from Soviet attacks.
These men were professional soldiers, well-paid and trained, and, from 1983 on, they provided an effective strike force against government outposts.
Starting in 1980 with a force of less than 1,000 ill-equipped guerrillas, the Panjshir valley mujahideen grew to a 5,000-strong force by 1984.
Thousands of foreign Islamic volunteers entered Afghanistan to fight with the mujahideen against the Soviet troops. The Soviet army and the Afghan communist army were mainly defeated by Massoud and his mujahideen in numerous small engagements between 1984 and 1988.
Between 1980 and 1985, these offensives were conducted twice a year.
In August 1986, he captured Farkhar in Takhar Province.
In November 1986, his forces overran the headquarters of the government's 20th division at Nahrin in Baghlan Province, scoring an important victory for the resistance.
Thousands of foreign Islamic volunteers entered Afghanistan to fight with the mujahideen against the Soviet troops. The Soviet army and the Afghan communist army were mainly defeated by Massoud and his mujahideen in numerous small engagements between 1984 and 1988.
He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989.
After expanding his influence outside the valley, Massoud increased his resistance forces to 13,000 fighters by 1989.
In 1989, after describing the Soviet Union's military engagement in Afghanistan "a bleeding wound", Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began a withdrawal of Soviet troops from the nation.
On February 15, 1989, in what was depicted as an improbable victory for the mujahideen, the last Soviet soldier left the nation. ===Fall of the Afghan communist regime (1992)=== After the departure of Soviet troops in 1989, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan regime, then headed by Mohammad Najibullah, held its own against the mujahideen.
In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias; after the Taliban takeover, was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001. Massoud came from an ethnic Tajik, Sunni Muslim background in the Panjshir Valley of Northern Afghanistan.
During late 1990, helped by hundreds of mujahideen forces, Massoud targeted the Tajik Supreme Soviet, trying to oust communism from the neighboring Tajikistan to further destabilize the dying Soviet Union, which would also impact the Afghan government.
A 1991 UN peace process brought about some negotiations, but the attempted elite settlement did not develop.
In 1992, he signed the Peshawar Accord, a peace and power-sharing agreement, in the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan.
By 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Afghan regime eventually began to crumble.
In mid-January 1992, within three weeks of the demise of the Soviet Union, Massoud was aware of conflict within the government's northern command.
By mid-April 1992, the Afghan air force command at Bagram had capitulated to Massoud.
On March 18, 1992, Najibullah decided to resign.
In April 1992, resistance leaders in Peshawar tried to negotiate a settlement.
But Hekmatyar refused to accept a compromise, confident that he would be able to gain sole power in Afghanistan. On April 24, 1992, the leaders in Peshawar agreed on and signed the Peshawar Accord, establishing the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan – which was a stillborn 'state' with a paralyzed 'government' right from its inception, until its final succumbing in September 1996.
Under the 1992 Peshawar Accord, the Defense Ministry was given to Massoud while the Prime Ministership was given to Hekmatyar.
With the exception of Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, all of the other Peshawar resistance parties were unified under this peace and power-sharing accord in April 1992. ====Escalating war over Kabul (1992)==== Although repeatedly offered the position of prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar refused to recognize the peace and power-sharing agreement.
He took refuge at the United Nations mission, where he remained unharmed until 1996, while Massoud controlled the area surrounding the mission. Senior communist generals and officials of the Najibullah administration acted as a transitional authority to transfer power to Ahmad Shah Massoud's alliance.
But Hekmatyar refused to accept a compromise, confident that he would be able to gain sole power in Afghanistan. On April 24, 1992, the leaders in Peshawar agreed on and signed the Peshawar Accord, establishing the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan – which was a stillborn 'state' with a paralyzed 'government' right from its inception, until its final succumbing in September 1996.
He became the military and political leader of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan or Northern Alliance, which by 2000 controlled only between 5 and 10 percent of the country.
Ahmad Shah Massoud ( September 2, 1953September 9, 2001) was an Afghan politician and military commander.
In the 1990s, he led the government's military wing against rival militias; after the Taliban takeover, was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001. Massoud came from an ethnic Tajik, Sunni Muslim background in the Panjshir Valley of Northern Afghanistan.
In 2001 he visited Europe and urged European Parliament leaders to pressure Pakistan on its support for the Taliban.
Massoud was assassinated at the instigation of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in a suicide bombing on September 9, 2001.
The Northern Alliance eventually won the two-month-long war in December 2001, removing the Taliban from power. Massoud was posthumously named "National Hero" by the order of President Hamid Karzai after the Taliban were ousted from power.
The creation of the Islamic State was welcomed though by the General Assembly of the United Nations and the Islamic State of Afghanistan was recognized as the legitimate entity representing Afghanistan until June 2002, when its successor, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, was established under the interim government of Hamid Karzai.
His younger brother Ahmad Zia Massoud served as First Vice President of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009. ==Early life== Ahmad Shah Massoud was born in 1953 in Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley (today administered as part of Panjshir Province), to a well-to-do family native to the Panjshir valley.
His younger brother Ahmad Zia Massoud served as First Vice President of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009. ==Early life== Ahmad Shah Massoud was born in 1953 in Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley (today administered as part of Panjshir Province), to a well-to-do family native to the Panjshir valley.
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